Buying cools as winter months approach
4:03

A QUEENSLAND property management business has come under scrutiny after being called out for its “bizarre” rental signs popping up outside vacant homes.

Coral Sea Property Management, who claim to be “the pirates of the property industry”, have pitched the quirky “for rent” signs outside properties in Townsville since March.

TWERKING not allowed in this rental property.Source: Supplied

Some of the signage is a bit of fun announcing “No Twerking’’, “Rent this and you get a free air guitar”, “Chuck Norris would rent this apartment” and “Crazies welcome, imaginary friends extra $25”.

But others are sexually suggestive, with one sign featuring a headshot of Bill Clinton’s former mistress Monica Lewinsky and the line: “Did your last rental experience leave a bad taste in your mouth?’’

Some say it’s clever, attention-grabbing marketing while others called it cheap, unprofessional gimmickry.

However Coral Sea’s Principal Shaun Podbury, a frustrated property investor who started his own agency, was happy to provoke both good and bad reactions with the signage, which is a result of his team “cutting loose’’ with creativity.

“The response has been fabulous and it’s actually brought about an interesting dialogue and some people love it, some people hate it, some people were offended, some were outraged, some thought it was fantastic, some thought it was great,’’ he said.

Mr Podbury said the publicity drew attention to how his agency did things a little differently, including being unofficially run by the office cat “Chairman Meow” who was rescued from the RSPCA animal shelter and now poses in photos with new tenants and sends out thank you messages to renters who pay on time.

“We had a lady complain online after she got an email from the cat thanking her for paying her rent and said it was unprofessional, but the dialogue got going and people ended up loving the fact we send thank you emails to our tenants for paying their rent on time — even if they are from Chairman Meow,” he said.

Mr Podbury has also proudly branded and positioned his business with a pirate theme, skull and bone flags flying from the top of the office on Flinders St and his staff dress in psychedelic tie-dye company shirts every day — which has his competitors off-side.

“Some agents get a little bit upset because our entire nature upsets the industry, we don’t take

ourselves seriously,’’ Mr Podbury said.

The front window of the office features a picture of Mr Podbury and two staff members showing off their new tattoos from a trip to Bali after achieving a long-term goal.

YES, we are a little bit cheeky, signage in the front window to Coral Sea Property Management.Source: Supplied

News.com.au's Privacy Policy includes important information about our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information (including to provide you with targeted content and advertising based on your online activities). It explains that if you do not provide us with information we have requested from you, we may not be able to provide you with the goods and services you require. It also explains how you can access or seek correction of your personal information, how you can complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and how we will deal with a complaint of that nature.

A NOTE ABOUT RELEVANT ADVERTISING: We collect information about the content (including ads) you use across this site and use it to make both advertising and content more relevant to you on our network and other sites.